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Draft Winds I: Cordarrelle Patterson

A popular feature on my blog in recent years has been the Draft Winds feature that came out of the Dolphins trip to London in 2007. There, I met Simon Clancy, who mentioned his work as a draftnik. I thought it would be interesting to show how flat the world is now that a draftnik in London can show off his expertise. He brought in compatriots at Universal Draft, Chris Kouffman and Richard Lines. Together, they wrote an in-depth, weekly blog on the draft. This year, real life (and the, ahem, pay scale) means Chris is doing the heavy lifting. As you see from his work on Cordarrelle Patterson, this is as thorough a look as you'll find on a draft prospect, complete with painstaking background, story and video research. Without further introduction, let's get to it ...

Nice write up Chris. You somewhat answered the question I have about his intelligence. He may not be able to explain his route options to Joe in 15 minutes but does he have the ability to pick up a complicated offense over the course of a season or will he struggle the way Egnew has?

Why, I can smile, and murder while I smile,
And cry 'Content' to that which grieves my heart,
And wet my cheeks with artificial tears,
And frame my face to all occasions.
I can add colours to the chameleon,
Change shapes with Proteus for advantages,
And set the murderous Machiavel to school.
Can I do this, and cannot get a crown?

Nice write up Chris. You somewhat answered the question I have about his intelligence. He may not be able to explain his route options to Joe in 15 minutes but does he have the ability to pick up a complicated offense over the course of a season or will he struggle the way Egnew has?

You could argue that Michael Egnew struggled because he played almost an entirely different position at Missouri than he's playing in the NFL.

Cordarrelle Patterson played the same position at Tennessee he'll play in the NFL. Well, not precisely the same but you get the point. And he didn't just run a bunch of straight line-ish verticals like you see in some of these spreads. He learned that playbook in less time than any other newcomer on that offense, to where he was given a wide range of plays to execute...between end-arounds, jet sweeps, decoy sweeps and end-arounds, option passes, screen sweeps, fade patterns, back shoulder, fade stops, slant routes, drags, dig routes, corner routes, post routes, bang-8's, shake routes, out routes, out-and-ups, seam routes, curls...a nice range, overall.

i don't think as a prospect pattersons on the same level as dez bryant when he came out especially in the red zone as a win option but that was a good read...and i think the reason given for why miami won't touch him with that top pick makes perfect sense...the whiteboard with philbin and explaining and executing option routes...

Well written, well thought out article, good job.
I wasn't so convinced that I liked Patterson at 12 but you sold me, particularly when comparing his #'s to the production of other guys out of JUCO like Steve Smith and Ochocinco. At this point, Patterson will probably go to the Jets, or Bills but I would be happy with the pick if he falls to us.

"I'm no longer concerned with the things I don't have, I'm just living for love and laughs."